In 1937, five-year-old Colette Rossant arrived in Cairo from Paris with her Egyptian Jewish father and beautiful French mother. When her father dies Colette's flighty mother abandons the little girl to her wealthy grandparents. She soon settles into their luxuriant, food centred lifestyle - spending afternoons in the spice filled kitchen; accompanying her grandmother to the bazaar; and feasting on the delicious Egyptian food. At fifteen Colette is brought back to Paris with her mother, never to see her grandparents again, and only to return to Egypt thirty years later. In this charming, funny, and moving memoir, accompanied by mouth watering recipes, she evokes an Egypt lost, to her and to us, forever. --

It is 1955, and Colette Rossant, newly married, has just arrived in America with her husband Jimmy. She is bemused by American customs and most importantly by the food: the ubiquitous mayonnaise, the iceberg lettuce. But post-war New York is humming and they discover a whole new world in Greenwich Village; Colette slowly falls in love with her adopted country. When Jimmy and Colette buy a house downtown, Colette finds a place she can truly call home. It is in this house that they raise their four children and where Colette progresses from being a passionate cook to an acclaimed food writer. Madeleines in Manhattan is the story of her journey from young housewife to successful professional.